Perfect Patient Pathway Test Bed project

In 2016-2018, we were involved in a project called the Perfect Patient Pathway. This was an NHS England Wave 1 Test Bed site involving 28 partners spanning across health, social care, education, technology and voluntary sector organisations.

What is the Perfect Patient Pathway (PPP)?

The PPP aimed to create the perfect patient pathway to bring substantial benefits for patients suffering from long term health conditions, such as diabetes, mental health problems, respiratory disease, hypertension and other chronic conditions.

You can read the reports from the project here.

For more information about the project, please visit the Perfect Patient Pathway website.

Who are the Wave 1 Test bed Advisory Group?

Healthwatch Sheffield was responsible for engaging with members of the public and ensuring that their views were heard and fully considered in the design and delivery of the projects in the programme. A main aim of the engagement work was to improve the experience of people who were recruited to take part. To achieve this, a group of volunteers were recruited in September 2016 to form the Wave 1 Test Bed Advisory Group (TAG).

The Test Bed Advisory Group was made up of volunteers that either had long term health conditions or are the relative or carer of someone with such conditions. The group contributed by email on a regular basis and meet every 6 weeks to consider issues that may affect people who are trying out technologies as part of the programme. They actively identified issues that they thought matter from a patient, relative and carers perspective and suggested ways in which project plans can be amended to better suit patients and encourage them to take part.

The Wave 1 TAG provided valuable insight by scrutinising evaluation plans, designing and amending information materials for participants and members of the public. In addition to debating and advising on issues relating to specific projects, the Wave 1 TAG were consulted on programme wide issues such as how patient data is handled, potential equality issues and  overcoming barriers to participation.

Members were also involved in presentations at conferences. For example, several Wave 1 TAG members presented at the Yorkshire & Humber Digital Health & Wellbeing Ecosystem event in Wakefield in March 2017 and have helped to deliver a workshop session to challenge the audience to consider barriers to adoption of technology in healthcare. Others acted as champions providing more in-depth support for a specific project because of their experience of a focus condition.

We raised public awareness of the programme by visiting voluntary and community groups whose members have long term health conditions and Patient Participation Groups of the GP surgeries involved in our projects. Gathering views from these groups helped to ensure that the views of people of various ages and backgrounds were fed into the programme.

The Wave 1 TAG members have highlighted that one of the strengths of the programme was that some of the projects involved patients using technology at home which has the potential to empower patients to manage their own health, whilst other projects involved health care professionals using technology with patients, so being able to use technology was not a barrier preventing people from take part in the programme.

The TAG will inform the Digital Care Home project and the evaluation of the project until it ends in December 2018. You can find out more about their roles and responsibilities in the group’s Terms of Reference. They also agreed a set of values which underpins their work.

TAG values

TAG terms of reference

Sheffield Test Bed programme newsletters

2 newsletters were written and circulated to give updates on the work of the Test Bed.

Newsletter 1

Newsletter 2

Perfect Patient Pathway Test Bed Short Films

Some short films were produced in order to introduce each project within the Perfect Patient Pathway Test Bed.

Asthma film

Falls Prevention film

Digital Care Home project film 1

Digital Care Home project film 2